StarDust

Went out Sunday morning to see what the Star Dust re-entry would look like. Based on the story in the Sacramento Bee, I expected a fireball in the northern sky, crossing from west to east 20 degrees above the horizon, and visible for about 20 seconds, at 1:58 a.m., January 15th.

Visibility wasn't the best. I looked across the chain link fence surrounding St. Joseph's graveyard, looking directly above the lights of downtown Sacramento (and the environs beyond) on a bright night just past full moon. On the other hand, the heavy, broken cloud deck had yielded an hour before, to a fairly clear night, so it could have been worst.

StarDust wasn't very bright: about magnitude 2, and so I didn't notice it until it had already crossed half my field of vision. I first mistook it for an aircraft (since Sacramento International Airport is also in that direction). StarDust moved purposely across the sky, faster than an aircraft, but slower than a typical 'shooting star', and angled noticeably towards the ground (about 1 or 2 dgerees from horizontal). By the time I saw it, it was lower than 20 degrees above the horizon, and I saw it for only ten seconds or so.

I've severely tweaked this photo, trying to bring out the speck I think is StarDust, but it may just be my imagination.